Apple Patents Fitness-Tracking Earbuds That Can Read Your Heartbeat

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office just granted Apple a patent for a new kind of biometric sensor that, unlike other wearables we've seen so far, connects to you via your ear. The patent applies to a sensor that can be embedded in a pair of earbuds or headphones, which then hoovers up wearer data like heartbeat, body temperature, or even how much you're perspiring when you hit the gym.

How the sensor intends to do that, however, isn't explicitly outlined in the filing. As AppleInsider first pointed out, U.S. patent #8,655,004 concerns a "sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets" to be used "during exercise or sporting activities." Originally filed in 2007, the patent suggests Apple has apparently been experimenting with new ways to cull together biometric data for quite some time now.

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Um, "woefully unimpressive" sound from the earbuds? Apple earbuds aren't really relevant now as they only come with the iPod shuffle. The iPod, iPod Touch, and iPhone all come with Apple's EarPods, which sound really really good. This device will go on EarPods.

Sure, EarPods don't plug your ears from sound like my Senheiser Earphones, nor have the same amount of bass. But they're 1/4 the price, have to fit the ears of 10 million customers, are damn comfortable, and they sound really good. Better than any pack-in phones that come with any other device my family has ever had.

In fact, since I got mine (packed-in with an iPhone 5), my daughter now uses EarPods for her Galaxy S3, and my wife has EarPods on her 5-year-old iPod. I didn't force them into it. They just love the sound of them.